It’s been way too long since I chimed in on the one remaining race for a Portland City Council seat. I hope to offer more coverage of both remaining candidates (Charles Lewis and Amanda Fritz) soon, but in the meantime, here’s a news release fresh from the Fritz camp:

“Mayor Elect Sam Adams Endorses Amanda Fritz

Amanda is passionate about doing good things for our city— and has a history of doing so. I want good people on the city council. She is my choice,” said Mayor Elect Sam Adams today as he endorsed Amanda Fritz for the Portland City Council.
As the election season gains full steam, Fritz welcomed the endorsement of Adams, “We have a lot to accomplish in Portland. And what we do in all 95 neighborhoods of our city will help build environmental sustainability and progressive social leadership in Oregon.”

The endorsement adds to the huge and ever-growing list of leaders in Portland (List: http://www.amandafritzforcitycouncil.com/supporters) Adams and others watched her 20 years of advocacy for children, neighborhoods, social justice and working in the community. Fritz is known for her detailed and well-researched approach to the issues of Portland. For the mental health nurse, skill with detail is no surprise. There is continual praise for her commitment to equity and justice in prioritizing City spending and actions. Her determined compassion gained fans for many years.

All summer Fritz attended dozens of neighborhood meetings, events, and gatherings to listen and talk with Portlanders about what they see now and what they want to see in the city and their neighborhoods.

The public campaign finance system allowed her to concentrate on the people of Portland, rather than spending days raising money for the campaign. Said Fritz: “A real campaign on the sidewalks and the streets of Portland brought me directly to the issues, ideas and promises of our city.”

“We are all in this together,” a theme of her campaign placed Fritz with Portlanders, like Sam Adams, determined to make our city a great place to live with good jobs, great schools, comfortable housing, safe streets, fresh air and clean water, and healthy happy lives.”

Is it just me, or did this come out of left field? I know that neither Lewis nor Fritz have the same ideological bent that Adams does (at least in terms of development and economic policy), but I wouldn\’t expect Sam to weigh in on the race. I wonder if Sam\’s sensing the political climate and throwing his weight behind the likely winner…

I\’d love to see some information eventually about the two candidates and their thoughts on nonmotorized transportation. Neither of them made \”bike issues\” prominent in their campaign as many of the others who vied for the spot (Smith, Bissonette come to mind) but neither seems exactly hostile either. Should be a very interesting race.

There were canvassers for Amanda Fritz at the Belmont Street fair who were rather rude and pushy. Not saying she is, but it was not pleasant dealing with them.

I do want to know how one can claim to have special insight into bicycling issues by pointing out that they are not a cyclist. You might have insight in spite of that fact, but not because of it. Yet, this is what she claimed earlier on this site.

Well, there is no doubt that bicycle-friendly candidates, with the possible exception of Adams, were huge losers in the last election. Fritz is Exhibit A.

This, more than anything else, provides pretty concrete evidence that this rabid anti-bike fringe\’s rhetoric about \”the bike lobby\” is total crap. It doesn\’t exist, except when Jonathan uses his intrepid reporting to point out obvious injustices to people who then cry fowl as their elected officials cave to pressure without opposition.

If positions on bike issued made a difference in our City Council elections, a race as close as this one would be/have been won by Charles Lewis or Chris Smith.